Hi Raphael,Apologies, I'm ...

Hi Raphael, Apologies, I'm coming into this conversation late. The autopsy is very thorough and clearly shows the fouling is caused by high amount of organics and silicate clays (that appear to have caused mechanical abrasion damage to the membranes). These foulants would have resulted in very high permeate conductivity and increased feed to the array (and differential pressure across the array). I wouldn't consider either Silicate Clays nor Organic fouling (nor the other minor foulants detailed in the autopsy) as irreversible foulants - they can be effectively removed (if cleaned early and cleaned effectively). However the damage they have caused (in this case) makes the membrane used irrecoverable. This damage is a concern - mechanical abrasion damage requires the presence of something hard (such as Silica), but also movement within the RO membrane (perhaps the test rig has strong water hammer/ high frequency of start-up & shutdown). In any case this is a concern and shoild be investigated. For future trials you need to use effective pre-treatment (of the same style to be used in full scale plant), to get realistic and effective results. The membrane also shows some evidence of Silica scale & Manganese (possibly sulfate). This indicates the membrane is operating at a recovery where the solubility of these ions is exceeded (causing them to precipitate). Suggest reviewing the trial recovery & antiscalant projections. I hope this helps, feel free to post further questions / results. Kind Regards, Anthony